Crawled properties are metadata that is extracted from documents during crawls. Metadata can be structured content (such as the title or the author from a Word document), or unstructured content (such as a detected language or extracted keywords).

Users can only search on managed properties and not on crawled properties. To make a crawled property available for search queries, you must map the crawled property to a managed property. You can map multiple crawled properties to a single managed property or map a single crawled property to multiple managed properties.

Important:

The steps in this article apply to SharePoint 2013 and use the Central Administration, unless specified otherwise.

Because SharePoint 2013 runs as websites in Internet Information Services (IIS), administrators and users depend on the accessibility features that browsers provide. SharePoint 2013 supports the accessibility features of supported browsers. For more information, see the following resources:

Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

In Central Administration, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.

Click the Search service application.

On the Search Administration page, in the Quick Launch, under Queries and Results, click Search Schema.

On the Managed Properties page, you see an overview of all the managed properties, the settings on the managed properties and the crawled properties they are mapped to. To view crawled properties, click Crawled Properties. To view crawled property categories, click Categories.

You have to perform a full crawl of the content source or sources that contain this new managed property to include it in the search index. If the new managed property is in a SharePoint library or list, you have to reindex that library or list.

Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

In Central Administration, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.

Click the Search service application.

On the Search Administration page, in the Quick Launch, under Queries and Results, click Search Schema.

On the Crawled Properties page, find the crawled property that you want to map to a managed property, or enter its name in the Filters box.

Point to the crawled property that you want to map, click the arrow, and then click Edit/Map property.

On the Edit Crawled Property page, in the Mappings to managed properties section, click Add a Mapping.

On the Managed property selection page, select one managed property to map to the crawled property and then click OK. Repeat this step to map more managed properties to this crawled property.

In the Include in full-text index section, check the box if you want to include the content of this crawled property in the full-text index.

On the Edit Crawled Property page, click OK.

Note:

You have to perform a full crawl of the content source that includes the crawled property that you’ve mapped to a managed property for the new mapping to take effect. If the new mapping is for a SharePoint library or list, you have to reindex that library or list.

On the Search Administration page, in the Quick Launch, under Queries and Results, click Search Schema.

On the Categories page, find the crawled property category that you want to view or edit.

To view which crawled properties belong to a category, and which managed properties they are mapped to, click the crawled property category in the Categories page.

To edit a category, point to the crawled property category that you want to edit, click the arrow, and then click Edit category.

Warning:

If you edit a crawled property category, your changes apply to all of the crawled properties within the category. Changing a crawled property category can influence performance and how items are saved in the search index. You also have to reindex the content.

Tenant administrators and site collection administrators can create a search schema that is specific for their tenant or site collection. For more information how to manage the search schema for tenants and site collections, see Manage the search schema in SharePoint Online.

You can create new managed properties for a tenant or a site collection and map crawled properties to them. Alternatively, you can reuse existing, unused managed properties that do not have crawled properties mapped to them, and rename them using an Alias. Then, you must map crawled properties to the renamed managed property with the defined alias.

When you create a new managed property in the tenant or site collection administration, there are some limitations. For example, the property can only be of type Text or Yes/No, and it can't be refinable or sortable. If you need a property of a different type, or one that has different characteristics than what is available, follow the steps under To create a managed property by renaming an existing one .

When you have added a new property to a list or to a library on a SharePoint site, or when you have changed properties that are used in a list or library, the content must be re-crawled before your changes will be reflected in the search index. Because your changes are made in the search schema, and not to the actual site, the crawler will not automatically reindex the list or the library. To make sure that your changes are crawled and reindexed, you can specifically request a reindexing of the list or library. When you do this, the list or library content will be recrawled and reindexed so that you can start using your new managed properties in queries, query rules and display templates.

Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the tenant or for the site collection.

Go to the Search Schema page for the tenant or for a site collection.

For the tenant:

Sign in to the Office 365 Admin Center.

Choose Admin > SharePoint. You're now in the SharePoint admin center.

Click search, and then on the search administration page, click Manage Search Schema.

For the site collection:

On your site, go to Settings, click Site settings and then under Site Collection Administration, click Search Schema.

On the Managed Properties page, click New Managed Property.

On the New Managed Property page, in the Property name box in the Name and description section, enter the name of the new managed property. You can also enter a description.

In the Type section, select one of the following options for the property:

Text

Yes/No

In the Main characteristics section, select one or several of the available options.

In the Mappings to crawled properties section, click Add a mapping.

On the Crawled property selection page, select a crawled property to map to the managed property and then click OK. Repeat this step to map more crawled properties.

On the New Managed Property page, in the Mappings to crawled properties section, specify if you want to include:

All content from all crawled properties mapped to this managed property

Content from the first crawled property that contains a value and, optionally, in which order.

Click OK.

To create a managed property by renaming an existing one

Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the tenant or for the site collection.

Go to the Search Schema page for the tenant or for a site collection.

For the tenant:

Sign in to the Office 365 Admin Center.

Choose Admin > SharePoint. You're now in the SharePoint admin center.

Click search, and then on the search administration page, click Manage Search Schema.

For the site collection:

On your site, go to Settings, click Site settings and then under Site Collection Administration, click Search Schema.

On the Managed Properties page, find an unused managed property. By unused, we mean that the property is not mapped to a crawled property: the Mapped Crawled Properties column is empty. See the Default unused managed properties table for more details. Point to the managed property, click the arrow, and then click Edit/Map property.

On the Edit Managed Property page, in the Main characteristics section, under Alias, enter a name in the field.

In the Mappings to crawled properties section, click Add a mapping.

On the Crawled property selection page, select a crawled property to map to the managed property and then click OK. Repeat this step to map more crawled properties to this managed property.

Click OK.

To reindex a list or library

Verify that the user account that is performing this procedure is an administrator for the tenant or for the site collection.

Browse to the list or library that you want to recrawl, and then do one of the following:

If you want to perform a full crawl of a library, click the LIBRARY tab, and then, on the ribbon, in the Settings group, click Library Settings.

If you want to perform a full crawl of a list, click the LIST tab, and then, on the ribbon, in the Settings group, click List Settings.

On the Settings page, in the General Settings section, click Advanced settings.

On the Advanced Settings page:

If you want to reindex a library: in the Reindex Library section, click Reindex Document Library.

If you want to reindex a list: in the Reindex List section, click Reindex List.

Click OK.

Note:

The full reindex of the list or library will be performed during the next scheduled crawl.

The following table provides an overview of the default unused managed properties that you can reuse and rename using an Alias.

Managed property type

Count

Managed property characteristics

Managed property name range

Date

10

Queryable

Date00 to Date09

Date

20

Multivalued, Queryable, Refinable, Sortable, Retrievable

RefinableDate00 to RefinableDate19

Decimal

10

Queryable

Decimal00 to Decimal09

Decimal

10

Multivalued, Queryable, Refinable, Sortable, Retrievable

RefinableDecimal00 to RefinableDecimal09

Double

10

Queryable

Double00 to Double09

Double

10

Multivalued, Queryable, Refinable, Sortable, Retrievable

RefinableDouble00 to RefinableDouble09

Integer

50

Queryable

Int00 to Int49

Integer

50

Multivalued, Queryable, Refinable, Sortable, Retrievable

RefinableInt00 to RefinableInt49

String

100

Multivalued, Queryable, Refinable, Sortable, Retrievable

RefinableString00 to RefinableString99

How to use an Alias: an example

Say that you want to create a managed property that contains employee numbers, and you want users to be able to search for these by typing "EmployeeID:12345", where "12345" is an example employee number. As this managed property is not of the type Text or Yes/No, you’ll follow the steps in To create a managed property by renaming an existing one with this input:

Choose an unused managed property of the type integer, see the table Default unused managed properties. Use any unused property from Int00 to Int49 if you only want users to be able to query on the employee number, or from RefinableInt00 to RefinableInt49 if you want users to be able to query, refine, sort etc. on employee number.

Give the property an Alias, in this example EmployeeID.

Map the EmployeeID property to the crawled property that contains the employee numbers.